Many of the members on our team are really concerned about the commitment required during the 6-week build season, and don't think that they would be able to meet more than twice a week.
Part of my job as "leadership" is to give the rest of the team a clear idea of what the build season is going to look like commitment-wise.
Therefore,
How much individual commitment is required to be on your FRC team?

I know commitment is really relative, so if you'd rather say how many hours are spent each week during build season, that works too

The CyberCards meet six days a week (we take Sundays off or my wife would shoot me). School gets out at 2:30; we usually leave between 6-7. On Saturdays, we're here from 10:30-5ish.
We expect the veteran members to be here at least 80% of the time; JV members at least 60%. We realize there are other taxing issues for high school students (academics, sports, jobs, other clubs & organizations).

Usually about one-two hours per night for the first several weeks, with 8AM-5PM on Saturdays and then Sunday afternoons. Let's see now: 5 hours + 9 hours (with lunch) + 5 hours or so= minimum 19 hours per week. Not everyone shows up every night though; the only required meetings are Friday night and Saturday.

The later we get, the longer we go. I'd say as many as 25 hours or more per week during the last two weeks.

Then again, crunch time practically starts during Week 1.

I'd say that every team has their own time requirement/constraint. If you can only meet as a team twice a week, great. Use those times to update the entire team on what is happening. Smaller groups can meet more often and work on their portion of the robot.

I'd say that every team has their own time requirement/constraint. If you can only meet as a team twice a week, great. Use those times to update the entire team on what is happening. Smaller groups can meet more often and work on their portion of the robot.

Our team works similarly to Eric's. We meet 6 days a week for the first 3 weeks, and 7 days a week for the remaining 3 weeks. Different sub-teams meet on different sets of nights (ex: electrical meets T-TH, manipulator M-W, etc.) This works in the beginning while concepts and prototypes are being built.

After the first 3 weeks, people start showing up quite a bit more. Integration between teams starts to happen, and people are there as much as they can be. All team members are required to be there every Saturday during the entire build season.

Personally, I am there every day/night that we open the shop. So thats:

3-8 (5 hours) weekdays
9-5 (8 hours) weekends

5*5*6 (weekdays) + 8*6 (saturdays) + 8*3 (sundays) = 222 hours.

I am also there for the 72 hours before and during the UTC scrimmage, take 6 hours sleep, and then work on the bot for 48 hours. This adds an additional 120 hours, for a total of 342 hours.

So I guess for our team, the maximum number of hours that can be put in are 342 hours. For the past 3 years I haven't missed a day (perfect attendance!!)

Our team doesn't meet at a school because we're two schools combined, and our shop is between 10 minutes and 45 minutes driving for every member. During build season our entire team only meets twice a week, with subteam meetings whenever necessary (usually an additional meeting or two per subteam). Each meeting is between four and eight hours long, with an additional hour driving each (for me), so around 14 hours a week for me, plus extra time for subteam meetings, brainstorming, and anything else I take home to work on. Plus, once the end of the build season gets close, Chairman's Award committee meetings eat up a LOT of time.

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Proud alum of FRC Team 1629 and mentor of FRC Team 639Cornell Engineering class of 2012!!

We do Saturday-Thursday with the amount of time/night varying depending on what is getting done and how much needs to be done. I don't think we actually have a hard minimum attendance, but if you never show up and never do any work, you don't get to go to the competition.

Normally, we meet Mondays ("optional"), Tuesdays, and Thursdays, from 3-5.

During build, we meet every day but Sunday until 6-7 on weekdays and from 9-4 on Saturdays.

Of course, as mentioned, there are some things that prevent people from coming every day. We have some people on the badminton and mock trial teams, for example, both of which take coincide with build.

Leads are expected to attend basically every meeting, and for other members, we use attendance (recorded) and efficiency to determine who can come when we travel when school transportation and hotels are needed.

During our "offseason" period, (September-December, May-June), we meet regularly once a week for two hours, with extra events like fundraisers, offseason competitions, and community activities.

During our "main season", we hold meetings six days a week regularly, with some Fridays (the seventh day). Monday through Thursday are 3-4 hours each, Saturday is 8 hours, Sunday is 5 hours, and the some Fridays are usually 5 hours. This is a total of up to 34 hours a week, not including fundraisers, competitions, and other events.

However, we only require 60% attendance to go to competitions, and we offer opportunities to receive what is, in effect, "extra credit", for attending specific meetings to clean up our workshop, etc. (We try to be flexible, and there are exceptions in extenuating circumstances, such as one kid whose mom died of cancer.)

Despite the attendance requirement, you see the dedicated members at robotics nightly, often with >100% attendance because of our "extra credit" opportunities. I've seen as low as 3% attendance, as well, with the people who you wonder why they stick around on the team.

As mentioned earlier, our team is moving to a new schedule this year (which still has yet to be determined). There will be mandatory meetings for the whole team about twice a week, and then sub-team meetings different nights.

Last season we did Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays. Weekdays from 2:20 - 5-ish and weekends from 7a - 2. Of course when crunch time comes around it'll be modified, believe me.

Yeah, there are things that prevent some students from attending. We had a member last year who was also in band, and it conflicted big time. But like smurfgirl and lukevanoort said, there will probably be some people whose motives have to be questioned. They show up, you set a mandatory attendance, then they disappear into the mist. Try to see what's up, but if they're just whatever, then forget about it.

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Quote:

The difference between theory and application is that in theory, theory and application are the same; In application, they are not.

We run three hours a day 6-9 on weekdays
Saturdays can very usually 9-5.
Sundays are reserved for emergencies

These are the set times there are members who arrive early and leave late

One weekend in 2004 we worked 5 hours Friday night, 15 hours Saturday, then another 9 on Sunday, so you can never really plan exactly how much time yours going to need. If your design & build run smoothly you might not need to meet everyday or if something goes wrong you could end up working extra long hours.

If you have members who can only meet a few times a week try setting a schedule up so they are spread out throughout the week, that way you can remain productive every day instead of having tons of people there one day then nobody show up the next. Either way make sure there is communication between everybody so you know who will be there when and what was accomplished the previous few days, We have learned from past experience that if only one person know whats going on with a certain design/device then they don't show up alot of efforts end up getting duplicated.